10 Worst First Days For WWE NXT Call-Ups
7. Austin Aries
From being 'The Greatest Man That Ever Lived' to a commentator that could barely get a word in, there was a frustrating predictability about Austin Aries trajectory during his short time with WWE.
His TakeOver: Dallas debut for NXT was less than ideal, snakebitten as it was due to Shinsuke Nakamura's electrifying arrival happening on the very same show. The black-and-gold brand smartly used that to inform his heel turn, but an eye injury during a match with 'The King Of Strong Style' turned out to be the last thing that'd happen to him on the brand.
It was during the November 30th 2016 edition of 205 Live that Aries made his debut as the third man in a booth alongside Mauro Ranallo and Corey Graves, but don't be fooled by those names into thinking the brand was of any prestige by then.
In-house enthusiasm was - as predicted by anybody that has watched WWE long enough - already diminished. Speaking of which, Aries' return to the ring came via the cursed purple-roped show rather than ever becoming a Raw or SmackDown regular. Taking a seat at that table doomed him twice over.